Child Care Costs Found to Be a Rising Burden

Rising child care costs have become so onerous that they rival annual spending for housing and college tuition for many California working families, a study released Wednesday concludes.

At the same time, the shortage of licensed child care spots has made it more difficult to find high-quality care, according to the 2001 California Child Care Portfolio, a biannual report issued by the nonprofit California Child Care Resource & Referral Network.

The average annual cost of full-time day care for an infant or toddler is $8,521 and represents more than 20% of the state’s $42,472 median income, according to the study.

The figure is $375 more than the statewide average fair market rent for a two-bedroom apartment and double the annual tuition at UC Berkeley.

The number of licensed child care slots in the state--886,871-- met only about 22% of the estimated demand in 2000, the year for which data were collected.

Many children are cared for by relatives, friends, neighbors or nannies who are not required to have a license, despite evidence that the quality of care can make an enormous difference in a child’s development.

Patty Siegel, executive director of the Network, an association of agencies in the state’s 58 counties that help parents find child care, said many families’ situations may have gotten worse in the weakened economy. The study was done “in the best of times, when the economy was booming. What are the implications for the worst of times?” she asked.

While scraping up money for child care costs is a burden for families of moderate means, it becomes a Herculean task for low-income families.

The study found, for example, that the cost of putting two children in full-time licensed child care could consume the entire annual earnings of a full-time worker earning the state’s minimum wage of $11,960.

The average annual cost of putting just one infant in full-time care runs as high as $11,275 in Santa Clara County, $9,115 in Orange County, $8,690 in Ventura County and $7,340 in Los Angeles County.

It is little wonder that the system is in crisis mode, said experts. According to U.S. Census estimates, 1.5 million California children younger than 6 live in homes where both parents or a single head of household are employed. Still, in 2000, the number of working women with infants dropped for the first time in 24 years, and it is likely that some of these parents were unable to find appropriate child care, said the study’s authors.

Los Angeles mother Terri Amuwa quit college and left a budding career in merchandizing for odd jobs at home because she could not afford the high cost of child care for her two children. Amuwa said that after paying for rent, food and “luxuries like the phone bill,” she was left with no more than $25 to $50 each month, hardly enough for the kind of child care center she would like.

It was only after she went on welfare and received subsidized care through local referral agency Crystal Stairs that her family’s lives stabilized. She works now as a medical claims examiner but continues to qualify for subsidized care.

“The subsidized care has been a lifesaver,” said Amuwa, 42.

But while government subsidies help some, the number of families that qualify far outstrip available funds. More than 250,000 California children are on waiting lists for subsidized care, 100,000 in Los Angeles County, according to the study.

Meanwhile, child care remains one of the lowest-paid professions, with many child care centers losing one-third to half of their staff each year. According to the study, the average annual salary for a child care worker in California is $17,420. Despite huge demand, centers in some communities do not operate at full capacity because of the difficulty in finding qualified staff.

One counter to the study’s negative trends is the growing number of licensed family child care homes, where up to 14 children are cared for in the home of the provider. They are people like Jane Probst, who has provided care in her Simi Valley home for 10 years.

Probst is popular because she accepts infants and is just a few credits shy of a bachelor’s degree in child development. Probst said she grosses about $45,000 with her home business, charging $150 a week for infants and $135 a week for older children.

“I see parents who are desperate for quality child care,” Probst said.

Licensed care for infants is particularly hard to find. Only 14% of the state’s 9,407 licensed child care centers reserves spaces for children younger than 24 months, the study reports.

In Orange County, Yorba Linda provider Anna Karepetian can take care of only four infants in her home day care center and does not expect another opening until September.

Even so, 10 parents are clamoring to be on a waiting list.

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Times staff writers Jessica Garrison and Catherine Saillant contributed to this story.